I'd appreciate any advice on selling deceased estate numis, particularly by auction. Apologies if this topic has been covered before but I could not locate much with the search function. I'm the executor for an estate and need to sell a mixed numi collection that is not insignificant in value. I would have been more than happy to sell the collection privately and slowly over 12 months (by breaking it up) to achieve best outcome for beneficiaries however I have a troublesome beneficiary (that's the polite term!) so I would prefer to hand responsibility to reputable auction house or ?? to sell. I've been an "amateur" collector for a number of years and dabbled a little on Ebay etc so I am not completely new at this but selling estate property is a different story compared to my small purchases/sales and comes with considerably higher responsibility. Perhaps if anyone could PM suggestions/advice, if its not appropriate to name here. Its preferable to auction/sell here in the West but I would consider sending East if necessary. thanks in advance! .......and my advice if anyone asks you to be their Executor..... run for the hills!!
you could list up here the entire collection as one go at it, or just as a idea of what it would be worth There are many here with deep pockets, that would give you a fair price, it would also give you an idea what the collection is worth Then you could make an informed decision of which route to go remember, auction houses also take a good premium for selling off the top, so you would need to take that into consideration
Yes - a few more details on what some of the specific pieces are - the approach for say a Melbourne Centenary florin vs a 1930 Penny are going to be different.
I do agree with Torcan that uploading some of the numis here would be a good place to start. If you are decent enough with identifying coins, you could look up a coin collectors catalogue (such as Krause, red book), and get a ballpark figure of what some of the coins are worth. Do take it with a grain of salt since some of the catalogue prices can be a bit 'idealistic'. If you have the time, you can always look up past auctions from said houses to see how similar coins sold.
If you're in Melbourne, might be worth popping down to the ANDA coin show to have a chat with some of the dealers. It's on this Friday and Saturday. http://anda.com.au/index.asp
I would flog the florin off on here, and send the penny to a numismatic auction house. Too high a value an item for a "difficult beneficiary" to dispute it wasn't disposed of in an impartial manner for fair market value.
Thanks for comments. There is no individual item that would achieve 1930 penny status, but the collection has a couple of thousand coins World/Aus pre dec plus loads of the decimals - granny bait I think I have seen it termed here. There are too many coins to list on this site but could email lists. Most coins have been graded (by my dad I think) but I wouldn't vouch for those gradings. Its easier for me to obtain approx. values (both "retail" and "realistic" ) for the Oz coins but getting values for the world coins to sell is a bit more problematic (eg collection of approx. 450 Zar to Union of SA coins - excluding gold). I went to a Perth coin show awhile ago (before probate) to get some ideas but sadly the first person I spoke to hounded me (probably thought I came down in the last shower). After that experience (but mostly because I have a particularly nasty beneficiary breathing down my neck) I would prefer just to quit the lot via auction - but it is a lazy approach and not fair on the rest of the beneficiaries (which includes me).
Well, whether you want to or not, the first thing you must do, is to take an entire inventory of the collection. Part of being an executor, your time is also valuable, and as such, you can include that in the cost. Unless the will stipulates that there will be no charge for the execution of the will (This is usually done amongst family members) the next step would be to take it to a reputable dealer, and have them give you a fair market value estimate for the collection, again, this is not free and the cost of the estimate can be included in the final "net" value. Then to sell, minus the $$ included in your time and the estimate. Some beneficiaries may or may not like this, but it is the way things work out. Nobody works for free, and no one should expect anyone to.
yes same as in the case were parent dies and leaves child as executor, and a beneficiary A person can leave anyone they wish as executor of their estate.
have no idea what coins you have but have a look here for prices achieved http://www.coinworks.com.au/ you want the best price you can get right so hard work is how that happens, find high value coins , mid and low. work out which ones they are is the 1st job and its 100% based on grade. work out how to get the best price, remember in high value coins people are very wary when buying with good reason they are parting with big $ and well they want insurance and a big name company can get you that as much as I do not like most of them they can be of help. either that or send high value coins to be graded by pcgs I would chose them over ngc. then they would be much easier to move than having dealers grade them which is always in their favour. which ever way you go it involves work as stated above and no its not easy or just hand them off for a educated price in one lot to highest dealer price. maybe it seems hard but if there are some hot coins in there its well worth the effort.
The inventory was done along time ago as well as the approximate value (for the purposes of probate). Selling it is a whole new ball game . I wish I could charge the estate - I need a court order to charge the estate for my time! That's a whole new topic and one I don't want to get started on at this time of night Yep - absolutely - and all the more reason for my caution with selling this collection.
obviously the coins you have are not in the coin works league. just send the inventory list to all big dealers and take the highest price and then its done right!! stress isn't worth it is it
Best advice I have had in a long time which is also closely aligned to what I wanted to do, if not just to get a monkey off my back. I have received some advice on dealers/auction houses via PM which I will now follow up on. Thanks heaps everyone. cheers
To maximise any profit you will have to do the work yourself. Don't forget any of the dealer will take some profit too.
go through and seperate high value items and sell seperately either online (here, ebay) or send to an auction (depending on time needed to sell all) sounds like most of the world coins have low value so selling them individually would make no sense as time + cost of listing and fees are too great.. Sell as a bulk lot (you will only get a fraction of their worth) but to achieve a fair market cost will require more work than the revenue gained.
